Mace delivers flagship sustainable school
Media
19/09/2007
Mace has successfully delivered the new Howe Dell School in Hatfield for client Hertfordshire County Council and doors were opened to pupils for the first time on 5th September. The council commissioned the project team to deliver an exemplar school in terms of sustainability and a flagship building that would set new standards in design and construction.
The new school has a number of unique features and brings together almost all existing sustainable technology in one building. Materials used during the construction and furnishing of the building were subject to a sustainability audit wherever possible materials have been used that have low embodied energy and wherever possible came from sustainable or renewable sources. Examples include using natural oak rain screen cladding to the external envelope, linoleum floor covering, recycled carpet tiles, a recycled aluminium roof deck, worktop surfaces made from used yoghurt tops and waterbased finishes wherever possible.
The school also boasts an outdoor classroom area that allows pupils to see the solar and photo-voltaic panels mounted on the roof with a selected area covered in sedum to demonstrate a replacement habitat at first hand.
Added to this the school’s curriculum computer network is interfaced with the building’s management system to allow pupils to see and understand how the building is working and where energy is being used. The building was part of the then DfES BREEAM pilot scheme and scored an excellent rating (the only building to do so) and aims to maintain that rating on completion once it has been reassessed.
To find out more about the sustainability of Howe Dell School visit:
